Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have not met Fredericó yet, but it sounds like that he is a real addition to Ireland and the Houses.

I will have to come back to the Senator on the fingerprint question. I did not fully hear the question to the other Minister, but I will ensure the Senator receives a briefing note on it.

The Bill is linked with a memorandum of understanding we have with the United Kingdom in protecting the common travel area. The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, has signed an agreement with her UK counterpart to guarantee the continuation of 21 social welfare payments to Irish people living in the United Kingdom, whether in Northern Ireland or Great Britain. It will ensure people can continue to receive their pension, child benefit and many other welfare support payments, on which they rely for their weekly income. Likewise, tens of thousands of British people living in Ireland receive pension and other financial support payments from the United Kingdom in Ireland. The continuing and seamless facilitation of these payments through a Brexit process requires a bilateral agreement. The same applies to students. We have to provide for the facilitation of our students in the United Kingdom. The legislation will allow us to continue to give them grant aid to study there. If the United Kingdom does not consider them to be in the category of the common travel area, they will become foreign students paying foreign student fees and so on.

This legislation is about a bilateral agreement provided for in law or a memorandum of understanding since the 1920s, long before the European Union or the EEC were even thought of, following Irish Independence when Britain and Ireland recognised each other's citizens in each other's country and facilitated free movement of students and workers. Joining the European Union and sharing the Single Market and the customs union reinforced it. However, we did not have to have a legal basis for a lot of it as it was catered for under EU rules. Now that the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union, we have to have a legal basis for some of this stuff. That is what a lot of this legislation is about. I hope that puts in context what we are trying to do. There are some things for which we cannot prepare with legislation in no-deal or contingency planning because it an EU competence. However, there are many areas in which we can legislate to put a legal basis in place to protect the status quo. That is why seven Ministers are dealing with this legislation across multiple areas. It is to prepare as best we can for a no-deal scenario and protect Irish citizens in what would be a very difficult and challenging period.